What Is the Martech Industry?
Martech is the ecosystem of companies building marketing technology—and the teams that use it to run modern marketing.
Definition
The martech industry is the ecosystem of companies, platforms, and services that power modern marketing. It includes the vendors building marketing tools (like CRM, automation, analytics, and personalization), plus the operators and teams implementing them inside organizations.
Why the martech industry exists
Marketing became data-driven, automated, and measurable. As channels multiplied and customer expectations rose, companies needed software to manage campaigns, data, journeys, and measurement at scale. That demand created today’s martech ecosystem.
How the martech ecosystem works
Martech typically connects data (tracking + customer profiles) to activation (campaigns + journeys) to measurement (analytics + attribution). Vendors compete across categories, and stacks are assembled from multiple tools.
Core martech categories
Most martech products fall into recognizable categories such as CRM, marketing automation, email marketing, CDP, analytics & attribution, and personalization & experimentation.
Where careers fit in
Careers in martech span working at martech vendors (building and selling tools) and working in-house (operating stacks). Many roles blend marketing, data, and technical execution.